On Your Mark
by Ferngirl
Summary: The unanswered questions about the girl with wings and the two police men who risk all to rescue her. Based on Miyazaki's fantastic music video, set to the song "On Your Mark."


You can watch this video on Youtube or somewhere else online (I don't know where else to watch it unless you live in Japan, which I don't). It starts out with a lot of shooting and killing, which turned me off. But then it suddenly became awesome! Obviously, or I wouldn't have gone through the trouble of writing a fanfic for it, huh? Well, I hope I did a good job. Any comments or suggestions would be great. And you should try watching "On Your Mark" if you haven't yet! Especially if you're a Miyazaki fan like me!

On Your Mark

Part 1: The Raid

The roar of the plane engines rumbled through the vast caverns of the underground city. The fleet of police helicopters swarmed through one of the dark tunnels that linked one area of the city to another. Immense black towers reached towards the cavern roof like fingers of some strange mechanical hand.

The building was in view now. A large neon banner bearing the sign "God Is Watching You" stared harshly at the fleet of approaching planes. Large electronic eyes blinked up at them from their positions around the top story of the skyscraper. The building belonged to the religious cult that needed o be taken down.

The fleet of police helicopters aimed for the huge ominous eyes. They didn't slow down or serve around the tower. Instead, like huge flying battering rams, the choppers smashed directly into the cult building, embedding their front halves into the walls.

The men in red and white robes scattered as the planes smashed through the windows and walls of the highest story. Armed policemen poured from the helicopters and began blasting away at the fanatics wearing the red hoods that had large eyes painted on the front.

Over a dozen helicopters emptied their policemen into the skyscraper. The policemen continued firing into the panicked crowds of robed figures. Several of the enemies fell, but others pulled out their own weapons and started firing on the policemen.

Chage and Aska, who were wearing the blue jackets, helmets, and gas masks like the rest of their colleagues, stepped from the helicopter as someone ahead of them threw a grenade into the incense-filled building.

The cops advanced, using bullets and bombs to clear the path. Furniture and walls painted with the symbolic eye, shattered and joined the thickening carpet of bodies on the ground.

Chage and Aska passed the rest of their team, heading deeper into the building. They ducked into a hallway, pausing to shoot through a doorway to their right. Chage tossed a grenade through the door as he ran past.

At the end of the hallway they stopped again, blazing away with their guns. A few other policemen joined them until the floor was covered in white-cloaked bodies.

Chage and Aska stepped around the lifeless forms. Aska bent to grab the back of one of their cloaks. He lifted him slightly off the ground to check that he was dead. Assured, he lowered the man back to the ground and they continued through the doorway at the opposite side of the room.

This room was different. It was basically a hollow cement block full of garbage. Crushed soda cans and cardboard boxes littered the floor. Something white was lying on the ground against the back wall. A pair of legs was sticking out from under it. It almost looked like a body covered in a white blanket.

Aska walked straight into the room. Chage entered a little more carefully, holding his machine gun out in front of him in case any more of the "priests" were waiting to shoot at them.

Aska knelt in front of the white thing and gently lifted it. It was not a blanket. It was a wing. And it was growing out of the shoulders of a young girl.

She was lying face-down on the cement, unconscious, and was wearing a plain white dress. There was something of a silvery sheen to her short brown hair.

Chage turned and saw the girl out of the corner of his eye. He forgot about checking for danger and came up behind Aska to look at the winged girl. Both of them pulled off their gas masks to get a better look at her.

"Do you think she's alive?" Chage asked.

"Barely," Aska replied.

"You don't think these freaks here _made_ her do you? Modified her DNA to give her wings? Or graphed them onto her shoulders?"

"Well," Aska replied slowly, "if they didn't, they must have taken her from someone who did."

"Well, I mean, you don't suppose that she's like that naturally? A real angel? Or maybe mutated from all the toxic waste outside these city walls." This part of the city was completely shut to the outside world, hidden beneath the surface. Many years ago, a nuclear power plant had exploded, sending its toxic waste all over the country. IN an event to preserve humanity, people had moved underground. There were a few parts of the city that were at least open to the sky, but this wasn't one of them.

"I don't think these people here created her," Aska said, lowering the wing back to the girl's side. She still didn't stir. "This group doesn't seem like they're skilled enough to have… made her themselves."

Chage suddenly had an image of he and Aska driving down the road outside the city, with the bright blue sky stretching endlessly over them and green fields swaying in a breeze. Aska is driving, and Chage is in the passenger seat. The angel girl sits between them, smiling. Chage lifts her out of the seat, holding her hand as the girls beautiful snowy wings spread wide to catch the wind. She's so happy to be out where she can see the sky and feel the wind. Chage gently lifts his hand, sending her into the open air. She looks unsure as she releases his hand, almost frightened to be alone.

"What are you doing?" Chage demanded, coming to his senses.

Aska had just rolled the girl over on her back and was carefully lifting her in his arms.

"She could be radioactive!"

"Give it a rest, Chage," Aska said. "She's dehydrated. See?" He carefully pinched the skin of the angel's forearm. It didn't spring back to place when he let go, but slowly sank down. A sure sign of dehydration.

"There's got to be something to drink around here," Chage said, looking around as though he expected a fountain to spring out of the floor. All of the cans scattered around the floor were empty. "It looks like they've just been throwing soda cans in here for her. Those aren't good for quenching thirst."

"No," Aska agreed. "Let's go."

He handed his gun to Chage so he could carry the girl. Chage took it and followed him out of the room.

The police had taken complete control of the building by now, so they met no resistance as the two of them ran down the hallways, taking the angel girl to the bar. All the religious freaks had been killed, or were under control.

"This one's not opened," Chage said, handing Aska a bottle with a straw attached to the top.

Chage pulled out a cigarette and lit it as Aska carefully placed the straw into the angel's mouth and squeezed gently to get the liquid to come out. Chage knelt to see if the angel was reacting to it at all. For a moment, she was still, and then she began to swallow hungrily.

"Hey!" Chage said, grinning. "She's drinking it!"

"At least we know she's alive," Aska agreed.

Slowly her eyes opened. She looked at them, only half awake. And then she shut her eyes again and fell unconscious.

"She looks pretty weak," Chage commented.

One of their fellow cops walked up to them.

"Oh, you found it! Stop feeding it and take it to the roof. They need to take her."

Chage and Aska exchanged glances.

"Well, let's get going," Chage said. "Can't go against orders. We came here to get the angel, and now the scientists have to find out what the hell she is."

Aska hesitated, but stood up and the two of them climbed the stairs to the roof, carrying the angel with them.

Chage leaned forward and saw the look on Aska's face. He groaned.

"Oh come on. I know that gleam in your eye. So, you like the angel, huh? Well, give it up. Orders are orders."

"I didn't say anything," Aska replied as they arrived on the roof.

Another plane had pulled up against the side of the building. It had a toxic hazard sign painted on the back. And once the plane had come to a halt, more men poured out. All of them were in full-body suits to protect them from the radiation the angel girl might contain.

They closed around Chage and Aska, not waiting for a reply but taking the angel from Aska's arms. They whipped out a stretcher and laid out a body bag on it. The angel was set inside, zipped up, and then put into a radioactive-proof casing, as if she was no more than a lifeless body.

The scientists rolled the stretcher back into the plane, and without a backwards glance, they shut the doors and flew away from the religious cult's headquarters until they were nothing more than a red speck against the black city.

Chage and Aska watched them go. Aska turned and started walking away.

"Hey, take your gun," Chage demanded, handing it back to Aska. He took it without even realizing what it was and headed towards the stairs.

"Let's get something to eat," Chage sighed, stretching. "I'm starving."

"Mm," Aska replied flatly.

Chage rolled his eyes and headed down the stairs after Aska.

Part 2: Planning

"Come on, Aska. You should at least drink something, even if you're not that hungry," Chage urged.

They'd both been pretty silent since they arrived back at the police station. At least Chage had eaten some food. Aska had been sitting there, staring off into space.

"We've had a long day. You should drink some water."

Aska picked up his glass, took a sip, and then slammed it back down on the table. He couldn't stop thinking about the girl.

Chage sighed and took another bite of his meal. It was hard to forget the sight of the angel's eyes opening when they'd given her something to drink.

He tried to forget about it. There wasn't anything they could do, and moping wasn't helping.

Aska drained his glass and set it down again. Suddenly he sat up. "Let's get her back. Help her escape."

Chage stared at Aska as though he'd just grown a second head.

"What, are you crazy? We don't know where they took her or what kind of security they have or anything! And we're cops. We're not supposed to go stealing things."

"Are you saying that because you're afraid we'll get caught, or because you don't care?"

"It's not that I don't care. It's hard to forget about someone like that. But how do you think we're supposed to get her back? And what do we do with her if we get her?"

"If?" Aska repeated.

"Yes, _if,_" Chage replied. "Even with a great plan, a thousand things could go wrong, considering the security she's no doubt under."

"We're police officers. We can get through at least part of it. I'm going with or without your help."

Chage sighed. "Fine, I'll go. If only to stop you from getting yourself killed. Besides, you'll probably need me to do some fancy electronic stuff. You can't work with mechanics for your life. And she'll probably be in a radioactive-decontamination room. You'll need something to shut it down. I can do it wirelessly."

Aska smiled. "Thanks, Chage. If you get to work on that, I'll try to find her. It should be somewhere on our databases. I should be able to get access to them considering we were on the search in the first place.

Aska stood and walked to the computer. Chage leaned back, rubbing his head.

"I don't know how we're gonna pull this off."

Aska started typing on his computer, puffing on a cigarette. He clicked on a music file to have some entertainment. The song "On Your Mark" began to play in the background.

Chage sat down at his own desk and pulled out all his tools, along with a tricky wireless connector box. He'd need to program it to read anything that the lab might have. And he'd also need to rig it to deal with the scientists. That wouldn't be hard due to the full-body, partly mechanical suits they all wore to deal with possible radiation. They both had a lot of work ahead of them.

Finally Chage stood up and stretched. He picked up his completed electronic box and walked over to show it to Aska.

"I'm done," he said, smiling.

Aska was still trying to sort out the information on the computer. Suddenly he leaned forward, grinning.

"I found it! She's being held here! Great. I know where this building is. And our IDs should grant us clearance."

"Well, as long as we can get passed the scientists," Chage sighed. "Let's get this over with."

Part 3: Flying Free

Getting in was easy. All they had to do was flash their IDs. But they knew that it wouldn't remain this easy for long.

They walked down a long hallway in the lab. Huge toxic hazard symbols were painted all over the walls. They dodged into a storage room and each of them pulled on the full-body suits that the scientists were required to wear while they dealt with radioactivity. And with these strange, puffy suits and built in gas masks and goggles, it was impossible for any of the scientists to recognize them as outsiders.

Chage's strange, bow-legged gait completely disguised by the heavily padded suits. His hands were in his pockets as they continued down the hall, one hand clutched tight on the little machine that would help them rescue the angel.

They walked through a doorway and came face to face with another man in one of the suits. Chage whipped out his machine and stuck the tube at the end into the mouthpiece of the suit. Instantly, the mechanical suit inflated, making it impossible for the occupant to move until the sleeping drug took effect. By the time the inflated suit had drifted to the ground, the scientist was out cold.

They were in a room full of computers and other suited scientists who were engrossed in their work and hadn't noticed anything strange going on. Which was exactly what Chage needed as he darted around, immobilizing the rest of the scientists. Aska headed straight for the door at the other end of the room, fiddling with the electronic lock. The door slid open just as the last of the researchers dropped to the ground.

The next room was full of glowing, beeping machinery with a strange elevated platform in the middle. It was emitting strange rays of light, and lying on top of the machine, contained in a large upright glass cylinder, was the angel. Maybe they were trying to decontaminate her of possible radiation.

Chage punched buttons on his electric box and the beeping devices in the room all went blank and stopped blinking. Without hesitating, Aska climbed up to the top of the platform as Chage used his tool to lift the glass cylinder out of the way. Aska scooped up the angel and turned to climb back down. But the moment her unconscious body left the machine, an alarm started blaring.

"Damn!" Chage growled under his breath. Aska climbed down with the girl and wrapped her in a blanket so that it wasn't immediately obvious what he was carrying.

The two of them turned and sprinted down the hall with the winged girl. The siren alarm followed them. Chage ripped off his hood. And as they ran, they kicked off the rest of their radioactive protection suits.

They finally reached the garage. "Wait! What are you doing!" Aska demanded as Chage headed for a large yellow tank.

"Trying to get a car! What do you think?" Chage snarled.

"Get in one with the jet launchers in case something goes wrong." He had a sudden image of them all falling down off one of the very high bridges that wove around the top of this part of the city. At least this part was open to the sky.

Chage obeyed and threw open the door of the yellow tank-like vehicle. One with jet launchers. Aska handed the angel up to him. As Chage took her, the blanket fell halfway off and her feet were visible. Chage held the girl beside him as Aska jammed his foot down on the accelerator and sent them into the tunnel. At last they emerged from the tunnel and onto one of the bridges that wove across the top of the city. Below them was a tremendous pit, which led to the rest of the enclosed underground city. It would be a long fall if anything went wrong.

And, as if on cue, police helicopters descended from the sky. One of them lowered itself down, almost directly on top of their car, trying to force them to a halt. It inched lower, threatening to smash them into the pavement. Aska pressed harder on the accelerator, trying to slip beneath the chopper. Chage winced and hugged the Angel girl closer as the car jounced dangerously. The angel's eyes slowly opened, but she hadn't registered what was going on. She was too dazed. And as the plane pressed down on them, the bridge began to shatter under the combined pressure of the vehicles. The pressure was too much for the plane, and the engine exploded. Though the armored car remained intact, The narrow bridge beneath them did not. It shattered and they plunged into the abyss.

Aska suddenly had a vision:

He imagined himself scooping up the angel and climbing out the door to stand on the edge of the plummeting car. The shock of the air rushing passed as they dropped farther and farther down into the city pit brings the girl to her senses.

Aska holds the girl above him and tries to let go so that she can fly to safety. She gasps and holds onto his wrists. They saved her and she doesn't want them to fall to their deaths!

But she's not strong enough to carry Aska! And as he falls with the armored car, she's dragged with them.

Chage climbs out after them and starts shouting "Fly! Fly! Fly!" He waves his arms for emphasis, but loses his footing and slides a few feet away, falling alongside them.

But the angel won't fly. She doesn't want to leave them.

Chage swims closer to the car and grabs the doorframe.

What are you doing, Aska!" Chage shouts. Aska jumps, coming back to his senses. They were still falling, but no one had climbed out of the car. There was still time. He punched the button to launch the rockets.

After all they'd been through, raiding the cult finding the girl, stealing her, it would have been in vain if they hadn't brought this car.

The car jolted as the jet launchers fired. It wouldn't last long, and it was hard to steer. But the tank shot forwards and upwards until it slammed into the side of the city.

They leapt out of the wreckage of the car and through the door in front of them. A pair of shocked people stared after them as they ran past. Aska threw a piece of rubble from his head as a wheel rolled after them. Chage kicked the detached wheel out of the way, holding the shivering angel. She sat still, knowing that movement would make it harder for them to get away.

They located another car – a yellow convertible. A moment later, they were speeding through the tunnels again.

And this time, they exited out into a vast field with the bright sky sweeping out in all directions.

"Yahoo!" Chage shouted as they rocketed further from the city. He pointed to the sky and looked down at the angel. "See! Look, sky! That's where you belong!"

They passed an "extreme danger" sign that warned of the radiation ahead. But they paid it no mind. Abandoned houses, deserted due to the nuclear meltdown, flashed passed.

"Come on," Chage encouraged, taking the hand of the girl.

She slowly stood up, feeling the wind in her hair and feathers. She looked uncertain. She'd been captive for so long…

Chage and Aska smiled. They'd made it.

Chage pushed the girl's arms above his head and she spread her gorgeous wings. She lifted up off of the car seat and floated above them. She held onto Chage's hand with one of her own as she flapped her wings. She stared ahead of her, hardly daring to believe that she was actually flying. Then she looked down at the two men who had risked everything to set her free. She smiled, putting everything into that smile that she could never express in words.

Aska winked at her and gave a little wave. Chage gently kissed the palm of her hand, and then let go. She soared out above them, joy in her face as her wings lifted her higher into the sky. Chage waved to her from the ground, and Aska pulled over to the side of the road to watch her fly away.

She glided above the clouds, feeling the welcoming sky envelop her as she flew away, free at last.


End file.
